I got hit with the 'H' bomb again yesterday.
You know........ the H word.
Hippie.
Yes, hippie.
Is it the dreadlocks, the clothes, no shoes perhaps???????????
I was called hippie by a teenage boy who was being looked after by a friend of mine. As they were driving he spotted me and said something like "Look at the hippie!" and she said, "Oh, its Sam, I know her". I would have been embarrassed if I was that kid (just sayin').
Anyway, the 'hippie' word. Why does it affect me so? I struggle to answer this question. Hippie...... hippie..... What's wrong with it? We all get judged, we get labelled, we get tarred with some brush - so what's wrong with HIPPIE?
Its my own judgement of what a hippie is that triggers me. I think of a hippie and I think of someone who was a generation before me, someone who smoked loads of drugs and lived life in an acid trip; someone who really did not do a whole lot with their life - kind of a "fuck the system" attitude and someone who was dirty. Sadly, instantly this is what comes to my mind.
But is all that true? Is that ALL they were? And am I none of that???
No. No. And yes.
I'm not going to do any research here because I know that i will come up with 10,000,000 opinions on what a hippie was. But i think I need to take a look at myself here and see that im missing the point. Hippies. What did they stand for? Peace, love, freedom, not conforming..... Isnt that ALL me? Isnt that what I, myself, constantly preach?
Yep.
I need a serious attitude adjustment here. STAND PROUD HIPPIE!!!!!!! (That was to myself).
Funnily enough I'm probably a stereotype and just want to be in denial about it. Yes I've had 3 Kombis, yes I've spent my life finding ways to not follow the mainstream lifestyle, yes I've had dreadlocks on and off for over 20 years, yes I'm a vegetarian, yes I love to travel and am quite nomadic, my clothes.... loose cotton and generally from Asian countries. Hippie. I'm a drug-free and generally washed version, but still - HIPPIE!
So here's to you kid, wherever you are. If someday you're googling 'hippie' and stumble across my little post here, know that I thank you for calling me a hippie yesterday and for helping me to come out of my hippie-denial. I stand proud in my hippie-ness because if that's what it's all about then I'm proud to be one.
Yes, I think I'm going to love being a hippie!
Just one thing though - 'hippie' is not all that I am. Maybe I need you to know that....
Sam
